Looking for great books to tuck in your travel bag (or upload to your iPad, Nook, Kindle, et al)? These offer a perfect blend of history, intellect and whimsy.

1. Egypt's Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz penned more than 30 novels and hundreds of short stories over his lifetime. He is probably best known in this country for his Cairo Trilogy, a series of three novels about a Muslim family in Cairo under British occupation. But if you're looking for something set a millennium or two earlier, his "Arabian Nights and Days" (Anchor, $15, 240 pages) continues the fantastical tale of Scheherazade on the 1002nd night -- and the bride is not happy at all.

Elizabeth Peters Crocodile on the Sandbank
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2. Mysteries more your thing? Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series is perfect, lighthearted fare after a long day of traipsing between iconic sites, but it's particularly perfect reading aboard a dahabeeyah, Peabody's favorite mode of transportation. It's 1884 when we meet the irrepressible Peabody in "The Crocodile on the Sandbank" (Grand Central Publishing, $7.99, 272 pages) and she is off to Egypt with a young, female companion, ready to explore the great sights, clamber into a few tombs, fight off mummies and murderers, and butt heads with dashing archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson. Indiana Jones should be so lucky. You'll find the rest of the series, in order, at http://ameliapeabody.

3. Emerson's character -- and his archeological discoveries at Amarna -- are based at least partly on Sir William Flinders Petrie, but Peabody's character bears more than a passing resemblance to Amelia Edwards, a real Victorian-era novelist and Egypt-ophile, whose 1873 book, "A Thousand Miles up the Nile" ($2.99 for the Kindle version), will make Peabody fans laugh with delight.

4. You can't go to Egypt without a guidebook. Try "Lonely Planet Egypt" (Lonely Planet, $25.99, 576 pages) for a good, straight forward approach with plenty of practical tips. You'll still need a driver, translator and guide, but at least you'll have a clue.

5. It's tough to keep all those pharaohs and dynasties straight. There were multiple Ramses and Cleopatras. Contrary to what Hollywood's "The Mummy" told you, Imhotep was the Leonardo da Vinci of ancient Egypt, not some lusty priest with a penchant for zombie armies. David Silverman's "Ancient Egypt" (Oxford University Press, $24.99, 256 pages) augments its fascinating essays on history, geography, legends, religion and culture with more than 200 color photos, maps and charts. Read it before you go. The book weighs too much to tuck blithely in a carry-on, and there's no Kindle version.